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Irish Republican Army

Irish Republican Army

:This article primarily deals with the army of the Irish Republic as it existed up to 1922. For Irish paramilitary organisations after 1922 that use or have used the name Irish Republican Army see Irish Republican Army (1922-1969), Official Irish Republican Army (1969- ), Provisional Irish Republican Army (1969- ), Continuity Irish Republican Army (1986- ), and Real Irish Republican Army (1997- ). Real Irish Republican Army The name Irish Republican Army has been used to refer to several Irish republican paramilitary organisations. The earliest of these was recognised by the First Dáil as the legitimate army of the Irish Republic, as proclaimed in the Easter Rising in 1916 and reaffirmed by the Dáil in January 1919. Though a series of organisations later claimed to be a continuation of the IRA from the 1920s to today, most Irish people disagree with these claims. After the signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, members of the IRA who supported the Treaty formed the nucleus of the National Army founded by IRA leader Michael Collins in 1922. While the anti-Treaty IRA continued to exist after its defeat in the Irish Civil War, by the late 1930s it had lost most of the legitimacy with which most supporters of the Republican side initially regarded it. A small minority of Irish people accepts later claimants to the name as the political heirs of the original Irish Republican Army. To distinguish between the army of the Irish Republic, and later claimants to the name, the former is often called the Old IRA.

Origins

Physical force Irish republicanism had a long history, from the Ribbonmen of the late 18th century to the 1798 and 1803 rebellions, the Young Irelander rebellion of 1848 and the Irish Republican Brotherhood of 1865. One of the key leaders of the IRB was Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa. His funeral in 1915 became a major national event and brought together many of the key leaders of early 20th century nationalism, from Padraig Pearse to Michael Collins. The acronym IRA was first used by the IRB organization in America (also known as the Fenian Brotherhood). This "Irish Republican Army" of the 1860s comprised the American Fenians' paramilitary forces, organized into a number of regiments. Fenian soldiers wearing IRA insignia fought at the Battle of Ridgeway (June 2, 1866). However the term Irish Republican Army in its modern sense was first used in the second decade of the 20th century from the merger of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizens Army after the Easter Rising.

Political background

The Government of Ireland Act 1914, more generally known as the Third Home Rule Act, was an Act of Parliament passed by the British Parliament in May 1914 which sought to give Ireland regional self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Although it received the Royal Assent in September 1914, its implementation was postponed until after the First World War (at that stage expected to last only a matter of months). However the outbreak of the Easter Rising in 1916 and the unexpected electoral success of Sinn Féin in the 1918 general election made implementation of the Act moot. It was never implemented but was eventually replaced by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which was to give Home Rule separately to six counties in the northeast (Northern Ireland) and to the remaining twenty-six counties (the so-called "Southern Ireland").

Easter Rising

Southern Ireland outside the GPO in 1916.]] Southern Ireland For what was initially a minority of nationalists, the home rule conceded was judged to be too little, too late. In the Easter Rising of 1916, these nationalists staged a rebellion against British rule in Dublin and in some other isolated areas. Weapons had been supplied by Germany, under the auspices of a leading human rights campaigner, Sir Roger Casement. However the plot had been discovered and the weapons were lost when the ship carrying them, the Aud, was scuttled rather than allow the arms to fall into British hands. The rebellion was largely centered on Dublin. The leaders seized the General Post Office (GPO), raising a green flag bearing the legend 'Irish Republic', and proclaiming independence for Ireland, though ironically some republicans in the GPO talked of making Prince Joachim of Prussia the King of Ireland if Germany won the First World War. Although many Irish people today believe that the Rising and its leaders had public support, in reality there were calls for the execution of the ringleaders coming from the major Irish nationalist daily newspaper, the 'Irish Independent' and local authorities. Dubliners not only cooperated with the British troops sent to quell the uprising, but undermined the Republicans as well. Many people spat and threw stones at them as they were marched towards the transport ships that would take them to the Welsh internment camps. However, public opinion gradually shifted, initially over the summary executions of 16 senior leaders—some of whom, such as James Connolly, were too ill to stand—and of other people thought complicit in the rebellion. As one observer described, "the drawn-out process of executing the leaders of the rising... it was like watching blood seep from behind a closed door." Opinion shifted even more in favor of the Republicans in 1917-18 with the Conscription Crisis, when Britain tried to impose conscription on Ireland to bolster its flagging war effort. A small monarchist Irish party, Sinn Féin was widely, but wrongly, credited with orchestrating the Easter Rising, although the group was advocating less-than-full independence at the time. The party's founder and leader, Arthur Griffith, was campaigning for a dual monarchy with Britain, a return to the status quo of the Constitution of 1782, enacted by the Irish Parliament under Henry Grattan's Parliament. The Republican survivors of the Rising, under Eamon de Valera, infiltrated and took over Sinn Féin, leading to a crisis of goals in 1917. In a compromise agreed to at its Ard Fhéis (party conference) Sinn Féin agreed to initially campaign for a republic. Having established one, it would let the electorate decide on whether to have a monarchy or republic; however, if they chose a monarchy, no member of the British House of Windsor was to be eligible for the Irish throne. House of Windsor From 1916 to 1918, the two dominant nationalist movements, Sinn Féin and the Irish Parliamentary Party fought a tough series of battles in by-elections. Neither won a decisive victory; however, the Conscription Crisis tipped the balance in favor of Sinn Féin. The party went on to win a clear majority of seats in the 1918 general election : of the 73 seats in which Sinn Féin were elected, 25 were uncontested.

The emergence of the IRA after the Easter Rising

The first steps towards reorganizing the defeated Irish Volunteers was taken in 27 October 1917 when a convention took place in Dublin. This convention, which subsequently became known as a IRA convention, was called to coincide with the Sinn Féin ard fheis. Nearly 250 people attended the convention; internment prevented many more from attending. In fact, the Royal Irish Constabulary estimated that 162 companies of volunteers were active in the country, although other sources suggest a higher figure of 390. The proceedings were presided over by Eamon de Valera, who had been elected President of Sinn Féin the previous day. Also on the platform was Cathal Brugha and many others who were prominent in the reorganising of the Volunteers in the previous few months, many of them ex-prisoners. De Valera was elected president. A national executive was also elected, composed of provincial representatives (including Dublin). In addition, a number of directors were elected to head the various IRA departments. Those elected were: Michael Collins (Director for Organisation); Diarmuid Lynch (Director for Communications); Michael Staines (Director for Supply); Rory O'Connor (Director of Engineering). Seán McGarry was voted General Secretary, while Cathal Brugha was made Chairman of the Resident Executive, which in effect made him Chief of Staff. The other elected members were: M. W. O'Reilly (Dublin); Austin Stack (Kerry); Con Collins (Limerick); Seán MacEntee (Belfast); Joe O'Doherty (Donegal); Paul Galligan (Cavan); Eoin O'Duffy (Monaghan); Seamus Doyle (Wexford); Peadar Bracken (Offaly); Larry Lardner (Galway); Dick Walsh (Mayo) and another member from Connacht. There were six co-options to make-up the full number when the directors were named from within their ranks. The six were all Dublin men: Eamonn Duggan; Gearóid O'Sullivan; Fintan Murphy; Diarmuid O'Hegarty; Dick McKee and Paddy Ryan. Of the 26 elected, six were also members of the Sinn Féin National Executive, with Eamonn de Valera president of both. Eleven of the 26 were elected Teachta Dála in the 1918 general election and 13 in the May 1921 election.

Dáil Éireann

Sinn Féin MPs elected in 1918 fulfilled their election promise not to take their seats in Westminster but instead set up an independent 'Assembly of Ireland', or 'Dáil Éireann', in Gaelic. On January 21st, 1919, this new, unofficial parliament assembled in the Mansion House in Dublin. As its first acts, the Dáil elected a prime minister (Priomh Aire), Cathal Brugha, and inaugurated a ministry called the Aireacht.

The battle for control of the IRA

Aireacht The new leadership of the Irish Republic worried that the IRA would not accept its authority, given that the Volunteers, under their own constitution, was bound to obey their own executive and no under body. The fear was increased when, on the very day the new national parliament was meeting, 21 January 1919 the IRA, acting on their own initiative, killed two Royal Irish Constabulary constables (James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell) by Seán Tracy and Dan Breen while the South Tipperary IRA volunteer unit were seizing a quantity of gelignite. Technically, the men involved were considered to be in a serious breach of IRA discipline and were liable to be court-martialled, but it was considered more politically expedient to hold them up as examples of a rejuvenated militarism. The conflict soon escalated into guerrilla warfare by what were then known as the Flying Columns in remote areas. Attacks on remote Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks continued throughout 1919 and 1920, forcing the police to consolidate defensively in the larger towns, effectively placing large areas of the countryside in the hands of the Republicans. Royal Irish Constabulary helped redefine the relationship between the Aireacht and the IRA.]] Moves to make the IRA the army of the Dáil and not its rival had begun before the January attack, and were stepped up. On 31 January the IRA organ, An t-Óglách published a list of principles agreed between two representatives of the Áireacht, acting Príomh Aire Cathal Brugha and Richard Mulcahy and the Executive. It made first mention of the organisation treating "the armed forces of the enemy — whether soldiers or policemen — exactly as a national army would treat the members of an invading army". An article in An tÓglách stated that "The Irish Government claims the same power and authority as any other lawfully constituted Government; it sanctions the employment by the Irish Volunteers of the most drastic measures against the enemies of Ireland . . . England must be given the choice of evacuating the country or holding it by foreign garrison, with a perpetual state of war in existence." In the statement the new relationship between the Aireacht and the IRA was defined clearly.
- The Government was defined as possessing the same power and authority as a normal government.
- It, and not the IRA, sanctions the IRA campaign;
- It explicitly spoke of a state of war.

The Oath to the Irish Republic

Richard Mulcahy As part of the ongoing strategy to take control of the IRA, Brugha proposed to Dáil Éireann on 20 August 1919 that the Volunteers were to be asked, at this next convention, to swear allegiance to the Dáil. He further proposed that members of the Dáil themselves should swear the same oath. On the 25 August Collins wrote to the Príomh Aire, Eamon de Valera, to inform him "the Volunteer affair is now fixed". However, a power stuggle continued between Brugha and Collins, both cabinet ministers, over who had the greater influence. Brugha was nominally the superior as Minister for Defence, but Collins's powerbase came from his position as Director of Organisation of the IRA and as his key powerbase as a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB. De Valera too resented Collins's clear power and influence, which he saw as coming from the secretive IRB than from his position as a Teachta Dála (TD) and minister in the Aireacht.

The full scale war

The Irish War of Independence was a brutal and bloody affair, with violence and acts of extreme brutality on both sides. The British sent hundreds of World War I veterans to assist the RIC. The veterans at first wore a combination of black police uniforms and tan army uniforms (because of shortages), which, according to one etymology, inspired the nickname Black and Tans. The brutality of the 'Black and Tans' is now legendary, although the most excessive repression attributed to the Crown's forces was often that of the Auxiliary Division of the Constabulary. One of the strongest critics of the Black and Tans was King George V of the United Kingdom. When the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney lay dying on hunger strike the King personally intervened to try to get MacSwiney's release from gaol. hunger strike Other critics of British policy included Sir Samuel Hoare, a future British cabinet minister, who said :If what is now going on in the Austrian Empire, all England would be ringing with denunciation of the tyranny of the Hapsburgs and of denying people the right to rule themselves. The IRA was also involved in the destruction of many stately homes in Munster. These belonged to prominent Loyalists who were aiding the Crown forces, and were burnt to discourage the British policy of destroying the homes of Republicans, suspected and actual. Many historic buildings in Ireland were destroyed during the war, most famously the Custom House in Dublin, which was disastrously attacked on de Valera's insistence, to the horror of the more militarily experienced Collins. As he feared, the destruction proved a pyrrhic victory for the Republic, with so many IRA men killed or captured that the IRA in Dublin was almost wiped out overnight. This was also a period of social upheaval in Ireland, with frequent strikes as well as other manifestations of class conflict. In this regard, the IRA acted to a large degree as an agent of social control and stability, driven by the need to preserve cross-class unity in the national struggle , and on occasion being used to break strikes . By June 1921, Collins's assessment was that the IRA was within weeks, possibly even days, of collapse, with few weapons left. However events took an unusual turn which astonished him.

The King's Speech

David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister at the time, found himself under increasing pressure (both international and from within Britain) to try to salvage something from the situation. This was a complete reversal of his earlier position. He had consistently referred to the IRA as a "murder gang" up until then. An unexpected olive branch came from King George V, who, supported by South African statesman General Jan Smuts, managed to get the British government to accept a radical re-draft of his proposed speech to the Northern Ireland parliament, meeting in Belfast City Hall in June 1921. The King had often protested about the methods employed by Crown forces to Lloyd George.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty

Belfast The speech, which called for reconciliation on all sides, changed the mood and enabled the British and Irish Republican governments to agree a truce. Negotiations on an Anglo-Irish Treaty took place in late 1921 in London. The Irish delegation was led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, as de Valera — now 'President of the Republic' — insisted that as head of state he could not attend, as King George was not leading the British delegation. Under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Ireland was partitioned, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish agreement of 6 December 1921, which ended the war (1919-1921), Northern Ireland was given the option of withdrawing from the new state, the Irish Free State, and remaining part of the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland parliament chose to do so. An Irish Boundary Commission was then set up to review the border. Irish leaders expected that it would so reduce Northern Ireland's size, by transferring nationalist areas to the Irish Free State, as to make it economically unviable. Contrary to myth, partition was important but not the key breaking point between pro and anti-Treaty campaigners; both sides expected the Boundary Commission to emasculate Northern Ireland.

The IRA and the Treaty

The IRA leadership was deeply divided over the decision by the Dáil to ratify the Treaty. Of the General Headquarters (GHQ) staff, nine members were in favour of the Treaty while four opposed it.
- Pro-Treaty were Richard Mulcahy (Chief of Staff); Eoin O'Duffy (Deputy Chief of Staff); J.J. O'Connell (Assistant Chief of Staff); Gearóid O'Sullivan (Adjutant General); Sean McMahon (Quartermaster General); Michael Collins (Director of Intelligence); Diarmuid O'Hegarty (Director of Organisation); Emmet Dalton (Director of Training); Piaras Beaslai (Director of Publicity).
- Anti- Treaty were Rory O'Connor (Director of Engineering); Liam Mellows (Director of Purchases); Seán Russell (Director of Munitions) and Seamus O'Donovan (Director of Chemicals). Austin Stack, whose position on the GHQ staff was ambiguous after Brugha tried to foist him on GHQ, was also anti-Treaty. On 10 January, at least three anti-Treaty members of the IRA GHQ (one account claims four); six divisional commanders and the officers commanding of the two Dublin brigades meet to formulate their anti-Treaty strategy. They argued that the IRA's allegiance was to the Dáil of the Irish Republic and the decision of the Dáil to accept the Treaty meant that the IRA no longer owed that body its allegiance. They called for the IRA to withdraw from the authority of the Dáil and to entrust the IRA Executive with control over the army. The following day, this group issued Mulcahy with a letter requesting that an Army Convention be held on 5 February to discuss these proposals. The letter is signed by GHQ staff Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Seán Russell, and Seamus O’Donovan, as well as Oscar Traynor, Liam Lynch and other IRA commandants. On 13 January, Mulcahy replied to the anti-Treaty IRA officers to state that he would not call a convention without the authority of Dáil Eireann as the Government of the Republic. On same day, Rory O’Connor wrote to Eoin O’Duffy stating that a convention would be called regardless. O'Connor added that O’Duffy’s orders would only be obeyed by the anti-Treaty section provided they were countersigned by himself. On 16 January, the first IRA division – the 2nd Southern Division – repudiated the authority of the GHQ. On 18 January, Richard Mulcahy chaired a meeting of the GHQ Staff, divisional commandants and some brigade commandants. It agreed to hold an Army Convention within two months and that, in a meantime, a 'watchdog' committee would be set up with representatives from both sides. This committee did not meet often, however. A month later, on 18 February, Liam Forde, O/C of the IRA Mid-Limerick Brigade, issued a proclamation stating that: "We no longer recognise the authority of the present head of the army, and renew our allegiance to the existing Irish Republic". This was the first unit of the IRA to break with the pro-Treaty government. On 24 February, the 'watchdog' committee established a month earlier met. Rory O'Connor requested Mulcahy to secure Dáil approval to hold an army convention on 26th March. Three days later on 27 February, the Dáil Cabinet sanctioned the Minister of Defence's request to hold an Army Convention. This decision was duly announced by IRA chief of staff, Eoin O’Duffy, who requested brigade conventions to assemble to elect delegates. On 5 March, a stand-off developed between pro- and anti-IRA forces in Limerick over who would take control of a military barracks vacated by the departing British troops. A compromise was reached around the 12/13 March. Clearly concerned at developments in Ireland, and in Limerick in particular, on 14 March Winston Churchill wrote to Michael Collins, warning him that: "An adverse decision by the convention of the Irish Republican Army (so called) would, however, be a very grave event at the present juncture. I presume you are quite sure there is no danger of this". The following day, 15 March, the Dáil cabinet decided to prohibit the holding of the Army Convention scheduled to take place on 26 March. Amateur historian Dorothy Macardle claims that the banning of the convention arose because "Mulcahy realised that 70 to 80 per cent of the IRA was against the Treaty and he feared that the Convention could have been used to establish a military dictatorship". However, issuing a summons under the title Republican Military Council, 50 IRA senior officers including 4 GHQ staff, 5 divisional commanders and a number of brigade commandants, decided to go ahead with Convention. On 22 March, Rory O'Connor holds what was to become an infamous press conference at the headquarters of the republican party (Cumann na Poblachta) in Suffolk Street, Dublin. He declares that the army is "in a dilemma, having the choice of supporting its oath to the Republic or still giving allegiance to the Dáil, which, it considers, has abandoned the Republic. The contention of the army", he says, "is that the Dáil did a thing that it had no right to do." When asked if he would obey President Arthur Griffith, he said he would not as he had violated his oath. When asked if the army would forcibly prevent an election being held, O'Connor stated: "It will have the power to do so." He went on to say that "the holding of the Convention means that we repudiate the Dáil … We will set up an Executive which will issue orders to the IRA all over the country." In reply to the question on whether it can be taken that we are going to have a military dictatorship, O’Connor said: "You can take it that way if you like." On 23 March, Richard Mulcahy (Minister of Defence), in a letter to General O'Duffy, orders the suspension of any officer or man who takes part in the "sectional" Convention. On 26 March, a Convention of (predominantly) anti-Treaty delegates met in the Mansion House, Dublin with between 220 and 223 delegates present. The convention past a resolution saying that the Army "shall be maintained as the Army of the Irish Republic under an Executive appointed by the Convention". A temporary Executive of 16 members was elected headed by Liam Lynch and including Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows and Ernie O’Malley. The convention adjourns until 9 April. On 28 March, the (anti-Treaty) IRA Executive issued statement stating that Minister of Defence (Mulcahy) and the Chief-of-Staff (O’Duffy) no longer exercised any control over the IRA. In addition, it ordered an end to the recruitment to the new military and police forces of the Provisional Government. Furthermore, it instructed all IRA units to reaffirm their allegiance to the Irish Republic on 2 April. On 9 April, the (anti-Treaty) Army Convention reconvened in Dublin. It adopted a new constitution and elected a new 16-member Executive composed the following members: Liam Lynch (Cork), Frank Barrett (Clare), Liam Deasy (Cork), Tom Hales (Cork), Tom Maguire (Mayo), Joseph McKelvey (Tyrone), Liam Mellows (Galway), Rory O'Connor (Dublin?), Peadar O'Donnell (Donegal), Florrie O'Donoghue (Cork), Sean O'Hegarty (Cork), Ernie O'Malley (Dublin), Seamus Robinson (Tipperary), Joe O'Connor (?), Sean Moylan (Cork), and P.J. Ruttledge (Mayo). When the Executive met, it elected Liam Lynch as new IRA chief of staff, Ernie O'Malley as assistant chief of staff, and appointed a seven-member Army Council. Barry's Hotel in Gardiner Row was made (anti-Treaty) IRA headquarters. The pro-treaty IRA soon became the nucleus of the new (regular) Irish National Army created by Collins and Richard Mulcahy. British pressure, and tensions between the pro- and anti-Treaty factions of the IRA, led to a bloody civil war, ending in the defeat of the anti-Treaty faction. On May 24, 1923 Frank Aiken, the (anti-treaty) IRA chief-of-staff, called a cease-fire. Many left political activity altogether, but a minority continued to insist that the new Irish Free State, created by the "illegitimate" Treaty, was an illegimate state. They asserted that their "IRA Army Executive" was the real government of a still-existing Irish Republic. Subsequent organisations that have used the name claim lineage from that group, which is covered in full at Irish Republican Army (1922-1969). For information on later organisations using the name Irish Republican Army, see the table below. For a genealogy of organisations using the name IRA after 1922, see List of IRAs

Footnotes

# Dorothy MacCardle, The Irish Republic (Corgi, 1968) p.267. # ibid p.269. # ibid p.269. # ibid p.282. # ibid. p.293. #The Church of Ireland Gazette recorded numerous instances of Unionists and Loyalists being shot, burnt or forced from their homes during the early 1920s. In Co Cork between 1920 and 1923 the IRA shot over 200 civilians of whom over 70 (or 36%) were Protestants: five times the percentage of Protestants in the civilian population. This was due to the historical inclination of Protestants towards loyalty to Britain. A convention of Irish Protestant Churches in Dublin in May 1922 signed a resolution placing "on record" that "hostility to Protestants by reason of their religion has been almost, if not wholly, unknown in the twenty-six counties in which Protestants are in the minority." #"The Politics of Illusion: Republicanism and Socialism in Modern Ireland", Henry Patterson, Hutchinson Radius, 1989: pp. 14-15 ISBN 0091741394 # Communism in Modern Ireland: The Pursuit of the Workers' Republic since 1916, Mike Milotte, Dublin, 1984, pp. 56-57 #Jan Smuts was one of the best Boer commanders of the Second Boer War. In 1914 at the start of World War I the Boer "bitter enders" rose against the government in the Boer Revolt and allied themselves with their old supporter Germany. General Smuts played an important part in crushing the rebellion. The South African establishment, of which Smuts was a part, in contrast to the British establishment in 1916, was lenient to the leaders of the revolt, who were fined and spent two years in prison. After this revolt and lenient treatment the "bitter enders" contented themselves with working within the system. It was his experience of the Boer British rapprochement which he was able to bring to the attention of the British government as an alternative to confrontation.

Sources

- Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins (Hutchinson, 1990) ISBN 0091741068
- Tim Pat Coogan, The Troubles (Arrow, 1995, 1996) ISBN 1357108642
- F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine
- Dorothy MacCardle, The Irish Republic (Corgi, 1968) ISBN 55207862X
- Aengus Ó Snodaigh, [http://republican-news.org/archive/2000/May11/11hist.html IRA Convention meets], An Phoblacht/Republican News, 11 May 2000.
- Seamus Fox, [http://webpages.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/index.htm Chronology of Irish History 1919-1923].

External links

- [http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/mil/html/mh_025100_irishrepubli.htm Reader's Companion to Military History - Irish Republican Army (IRA)]
- Category:National liberation movements ja:IRA

Irish Republican Army (1922-1969)

:This article deals with the Irish republican organisation opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, styling itself "Irish Republican Army", as it existed from the time of the Treaty in 1921 to the split between the Official Irish Republican Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1969. See List of IRAs for a full list of organisations using the name. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the Irish Republican Army in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and opponents of the Treaty. The 'Anti-Treatyites', sometimes referred to as the Irregulars, continued to use the name Irish Republican Army (IRA) or in Irish Óglaigh na hÉireann (lit. 'Irish Volunteers'), as did the organisation in Northern Ireland which generally supported the pro-Treaty side. Óglaigh na hÉireann was also adopted as the name of the pro-Treaty National Army and remains the official legal title of the Irish Defence Forces. Most Irish people now consider the latter the only body entitled to use that name.

The IRA split

The signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty by the Irish delegation in London caused an angry reaction among the more radical elements in Sinn Féin and in the IRA. Dáil Éireann ratified the Treaty by 64 votes to 57 after a lengthy and acrimonious debate, following which President Éamon de Valera resigned. Sinn Féin split between pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty factions, and the Army followed suit. The majority of headquarters staff, many of whom were close to Michael Collins, supported the Treaty, but opinion among Volunteers was divided. By and large, IRA units in Munster, part of Clare and most of Connacht were opposed to the Treaty, while those in favour predominated in the Midlands, Leinster and what was to become Northern Ireland. The pro-treaty majority of the Volunteers formed the nucleus of the new National Army. In March 1922 anti-Treaty officers called an army convention, attended by their supporters, which reaffirmed their opposition to the Treaty. Meanwhile the IRA in Northern Ireland maintained their links with Michael Collins. In May 1922 they launched a renewed military offensive, in which they were aided covertly by the National Army.

The Civil War

:Main article: Irish Civil War Irish Civil War Public support for the Treaty settlement and the new Irish Free State was reflected in the victory of the pro-Treaty side in general elections in 1922 and 1923. In April 1922, anti-Treaty forces controversially seized a number of public buildings in Dublin, most notably the Four Courts. The Four Courts garrison kidnapped a pro-Treaty general, JJ O'Connell. This provocation co-incided with the assassination in London of Sir Henry Wilson by an IRA unit, which led to an increase in British pressure for decisive action against the dissidents. The government decided to act, and the Civil War thus started with pro-Treaty forces bombarding the Four Courts, whose garrison surrendered after a few days. The Republicans soon lost most of the territory they initially controlled. The National Army was quickly expanded, recruiting Irish National Volunteer ex-servicemen from the British Army amongst others. Additionally, the British met its requests for armoured cars, artillery, aeroplanes and, crucially, boats that allowed it to capture centres such as Cork city without passing through the Republican-controlled hinterland. Furthermore, without the public support that had existed during the War of Independence, the Irregulars found that they could not sustain a guerrilla war such as that fought against Britain. However, the conduct of the Civil War resulted in long-lasting bitterness on both sides. In September special emergency legislation came into effect under which military tribunals were empowered to order executions. The head of the anti-Treaty forces, Liam Lynch, responded with an announcement that Free State TDs and senators who had voted for the legislation would be targeted. A number of members of the Oireachtas were killed and the property of parliamentarians burnt. The Government, for its part, executed 77 Anti-Treaty prisoners. Government forces also carried out a number of atrocities against captured Irregulars. Eventually, on May 24 1923 the Irregulars received an order, issued by Frank Aiken, their chief-of-staff, to "dump arms". Eamon de Valera supported this in his speech "Legion of the Rearguard": Frank Aiken in 1926.]] In de Valera's words, "Further sacrifice of life would now be vain and continuance of the struggle in arms unwise in the national interest and prejudical to the future of our cause. Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic. Other means must be sought to safeguard the nation's right." By this time many of the Irregulars were already prisoners of the Free State government led by W.T. Cosgrave; many more were arrested after they dumped arms and returned to civilian life. The prisoners were released over the following period, with Eamon De Valera last to leave Kilmainham Gaol in 1924. In 1926, after failing to persuade Sinn Féin to participate in the political institutions of the Free State, de Valera formed a new political party, called Fianna Fáil, and many Sinn Féin and IRA members left to support him. De Valera would in 1932 become President of the Executive Council, at the head of the first Fianna Fáil government.

Ideology of the post-Civil War IRA

The IRA considered itself to be upholding the Republic that was declared in the 1916 Proclamation, and held that the governments of the Irish Free State were illegitimate. It maintained that it remained the army of that Republic, in direct continuity with the IRA of the War of Independence period. It should be noted that there were several competing organisations on the radical republican side of Irish politics during this period. In addition to the IRA, these including the hardline elements of anti-Treaty Sinn Féin who had not followed de Valera into constitutional politics, and the rump of the anti-Treaty members of the Second Dáil, still proclaiming themselves the only legitimate Irish parliament. For most of this period, the IRA's relations with Sinn Féin were poor (IRA members were even forbidden to join the party), despite the reconciliation attempt represented by the 1929 Comhairle na Poblachta. In December 1938, a reconciliation finally took place between the IRA and the Second Dáil. By the late 1930s at the latest, most Irish people disagreed with the residual Irish Republican Army's claims that it remained the legitimate 'army of the Republic'.

The IRA from 1926 to 1936: flirtations with socialism

From 1926 to 1936, the remainder of the IRA was led by Moss (Maurice) Twomey. The organisation was increasingly influenced by left-wing ideas, although the leadership's varying support for these seems to have owed more to pragmatism than to conviction. The IRA intervened in a number of strikes during this period, and IRA members campaigned against the payment of land annuities (in respect of the buying-out of landlords by the former British administration), with Peadar O'Donnell establishing the Anti-Tribute League in 1928. Many Communist Party of Ireland members were also members of the IRA at this time. Political initiatives such as Saor Éire in 1931 and the Republican Congress in 1933-1934 were promoted by left-wing IRA members such as George Gilmore, Peadar O'Donnell and Frank Ryan. IRA members also helped establish the "Friends of Soviet Russia", from which they later expelled Communist Party members when relations between the two organisations deteriorated. This burst of what has sometimes been termed "social republicanism" expired in the mid-1930s. In 1931 Saor Éire had quickly collapsed due to the combination of fierce reaction from the Catholic Church, deeply hostile to anything that appeared communist, and repressive legislation immediately introduced by the government. The Republican Congress, in turn, was ultimately a failure, partly because Twomey and other conservative elements in the IRA leadership opposed it and forced its supporters to leave the organisation. From the debacle of the Republican Congress until it took a leftward turn again in the 1960s, the IRA would be inspired primarily by a conservative, strictly nationalist political outlook.

Legalisation and renewed repression: the 1930s and 1940s

In 1932 Fianna Fáil under de Valera formed its first government in the Irish Free State, and republican prisoners were released and the organisation unbanned. Confrontations between the IRA and the Blueshirts were a feature of political life in the early 1930s, with the former breaking up political meetings of Cumann na nGaedhael under the slogan "no free speech for traitors" and accusing the latter of being fascists. In 1936, the IRA was banned once again, as were the Blueshirts. Moss Twomey was imprisoned, and was succeeded as chief of staff by Seán MacBride. De Valera's government increasingly followed a strict anti-IRA policy. In 1938, Seán Russell became chief of staff and set about preparations for a bombing campaign against Britain. In January 1939, the IRA Army Council declared war against Britain, and the Sabotage Campaign began a few days later.

The IRA during World War II

During the Second World War, the IRA leadership hoped for support from Germany to strike against Britain during the war, and Seán Russell travelled to Germany in 1940 to canvass for arms. He became ill and died on board a German U-boat which was bringing him back to Ireland in August that year. Gunther Schuetz, a member of the Abwehr parachuted into Ireland and was almost immediately arrested. On February 28 1942 he escaped. The IRA intended to send him back to Germany with a request for weapons, ammunition, explosives, radio equipment and money. The IRA Army Executive met on April 20 and sanctioned the requests. They resolved “to give military information to powers at war with England”. An IRA courier was arrested on the Dublin-Belfast train with documentation of the decisions taken, and details of the German contact. This led to the arrest of Schuetz, on April 30, only hours before he was due to set sail. The boat was seized and the crew arrested. In 1942, the IRA launched an armed campaign in Northern Ireland. It has also been claimed that during the war period IRA members may have attempted to aid the German aerial bombing of targets in Northern Ireland . The IRA was severely damaged by the measures taken against it by the governments on both sides of the border during the Second World War. IRA members were interned both north and south of the border, and a number of IRA men, including chief of staff between 1942 and 1944 Charlie Kerins, were executed for criminal offences by the Irish government during the war. Kerins had been tried and found guilty of the murder of a Garda (police man).

The Border Campaign

- Main article: Border Campaign (IRA) Under the leadership of Tony Magan from 1948 on, the IRA rebuilt its organisation. In the 1950s it started planning for a renewed armed campaign, and in 1956 recent recruit Seán Cronin, who had considerable military experience, drew up a plan codenamed Operation Harvest. The border campaign, as it became known, involved various military columns carrying out a range of military operations from direct attacks on security installations to disruptive actions against infrastructure. Internment without trial, introduced first in Northern Ireland and then in the Republic of Ireland, curtailed IRA operations and ultimately broke morale. Eighteen people in total were killed during the campaign, of whom seven were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and eight were members of the IRA itself. Despite the boost to republican morale given by the massive turnout for the funeral in Limerick of IRA member Seán South, the campaign was on the whole a failure, and did not receive significant support from the populace on either side of the border. It petered out in the late 1950s, and was officially ended in February 1962.

The 1960s: Marxist tendency and the 1969 split

In the 1960s the IRA once more came under the influence of left-wing thinkers, especially those such as Desmond Greaves active in the Connolly Association in London. This move to a class-based political outlook and the consequent rejection of any stance that could be seen as sectarian — including the use of IRA arms to defend the beleaguered Catholic communities of Belfast in 1969 — was to be one of the factors in the 1969 split between the official and provisional wings of the republican movement, with the latter subscribing to a traditional republican analysis of the situation while the former embraced Marxism.

Footnotes

# The term The Irregulars was first coined by Piaras Beaslaí # IRA offered to decommission in 1923 by Ed Maloney, Sunday Tribune. [http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/moloney2000/mal31-12.htm] # Óglaigh na hÉireann is the legal name of the Irish Defence Force - Section 3, Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act 1923. also Section 16, Defence Act 1954. # Legion of the Rearguard Proinsias MacAonghusa Quotations from Eamon de Valera isbn 083426848 page 36; Aiken's order page 92 # J Bower Bell – The Secret Army, pages 262-264; also Enno Stephan Spies in Ireland, pages 226, 245 and 275

Sources

- C Desmond Greaves Liam Mellowes and the Irish Revolution (Lawrence and Wishart, 1989)
- Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic (Corgi, 1968)
- Mike Millotte, Communism in Modern Ireland: The Pursuit of the Workers' Republic since 1916 (Pluto, 1984) ISBN 074530317X
- Ulick O'Connor, The Troubles (Mandarin, 1989)
- Enno Stephan, Spies in Ireland (FourSquare, 1963) a translation of Gehelmauftrag Irland 1961 by Gerhard Salaaing Verlag

Official Irish Republican Army

The term Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA refers to one of the two organisations - the other being the Provisional Irish Republican Army - that emerged from the split in the then Irish Republican Army in 1969-70. Both organisations continued to refer to themselves as the Irish Republican Army and rejected the political legitimacy of the other. The Official IRA had an essentially Marxist approach. Initially engaged in military action against the British Army, it declared an end to offensive action in 1973 but since then engaged in feuds with both the Provisional IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army, a radical splinter group formed in 1974. In later years it was accused of involvement in organised crime, and while it has not carried out any military actions for many years it appears that it remains in existence. The Official IRA was associated with Official Sinn Féin, later renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party and subsequently The Workers Party, and now known as The Workers Party of Ireland.

The split in the Republican movement, 1969 - 1970

The split in the Irish Republican Army, soon followed by a parallel split in Sinn Féin, was the result of the dissatisfaction of more traditional and militant republicans at the political direction taken by the leadership. Particular objects of their discontent were the IRA's unwillingness to engage in armed action against the British state or military defence of Catholic areas in Northern Ireland, and Sinn Féin's ending of its policy of abstentionism in Ireland. This issue is a key one in republican ideology, as traditional republicans regarded the Irish state as illegitimate and maintained that their loyalty was due only to the Irish Republic declared in 1916 and in their view, represented by the IRA Army Council. During the 1960s, the republican movement under the leadership of Cathal Goulding had been heavily influenced by popular front ideology and drew close to Communist thinking. A key intermediary body was the Communist Party of Great Britain's organisation for Irish exiles, the Connolly Association. The Marxist analysis was that the conflict in Northern Ireland was a "bourgeois nationalist" one between the Protestant and Catholic working classes, fomented and continued by the ruling class. Its effect was to depress wages, since worker could be set against worker. They concluded that the military campaign was counter-productive, that it delayed the day when the workers would unite to declare a 32-county Socialist Republic. (25 years later, Provisional Sinn Féin came to much the same conclusion, although for very different reasons.) The sense that the IRA seemed to be drifting away from its conventional republican and nationalist roots into Marxism angered the more traditional republicans. Many in the Official IRA later referred to the Provisional IRA as "the rosary brigade" because of what they saw as the Catholic and romantic nationalist ideology of the latter. Some radicals believed that the Irish government, MI5 and the CIA had conspired to cultivate the split because they were afraid of another Cuba in Europe's "back yard". The Arms Crisis provided evidence that some members of the Irish (Fianna Fáil) government had attempted to supply arms and funds to a variety of individuals in Northern Ireland. The radicals viewed Northern Protestants with unionist views as "fellow Irishmen deluded by bourgeois loyalties, who needed to be engaged in dialectical debate", although they had no short-term strategy for ending the attacks on Catholic areas by loyalist mobs. This increasing political divergence led to a formal split in the movement: the Marxists became the "Officials" and the traditionalists became the "Provisionals". The critical moment came in August 1969 when there was a major outbreak of intercommunal violence in Belfast and Derry, with tens of fatalities and whole streets ablaze. Since the Civil Rights marches began in 1968, there had been many cases of street violence. The Royal Ulster Constabulary had been shown on television in undisciplined baton charges, and had already killed three civilians, one a child. The Orange Order's "marching season" during the summer of 1969 had been characterised by violence on both sides. By August, the violence was out of control. In accordance with its Marxist analysis, the IRA leadership opposed armed defence of Catholic communities. In the Republic of Ireland, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Jack Lynch declared that he "would not stand idly by" and moved units of the Irish Defence Forces to the border, though without any intention of intervention in Northern Ireland. The Battle of the Bogside finally galvanised Harold Wilson's British government to send in the British army to "restore order". The Officials were known as the "Stickies" because they sold stick-on lilies to commemorate the Easter Rising; the Provisionals were known as "Pinheads" because they produced pinned-on lilies. The term Stickies stuck, though Pinheads disappeared.

Impact of the Split

When the Provisionals (often called the "Provos") split from the Official IRA, they took away a number of experienced volunteers, depriving the OIRA of some of its operational expertise. The Official IRA remained active, however, albeit with a more restricted level of activity than the Provisionals. Unlike the Provisionals, it did not establish de facto control over Catholic areas of Belfast and Derry. In December 1971, the Official IRA killed Ulster Unionist Party Senator John Barnhill at his home in Strabane. This was the first murder of a politician in Ireland since the assassination of Free State Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins in 1927. The Official IRA ceasefire followed a number of armed actions which had been politically damaging. The organisation bombed the Aldershot headquarters of the Parachute Regiment in revenge for Bloody Sunday, but killed only seven civilians. After the unpopular killing of William Best, a Catholic man home in Derry on leave from the Royal Irish Regiment of the British army, the OIRA declared a ceasefire.

The Official IRA since 1973

Although formally on ceasefire (except for "defensive actions") since 1973 (see above), the Official IRA continued to be involved in a bloody feud with the Provisionals. In 1974 radical elements within the organisation who objected to the ceasefire, led by Seamus Costello, established the Irish National Liberation Army. Another feud ensued, with prominent members of both organisations including Costelloe, losing their lives. However, from the mid-1970s onwards the Official Republican Movement became increasingly focussed on achieving its aims through left-wing constitutional politics. From 1981 on, Sinn Féin the Workers Party, renamed the Workers Party the following year, had some success in the Republic of Ireland, but little in the North. Much as the Provisionals were to find twenty years later, a committment to armed struggle severely limited prospects for political growth and it seems reasonable to say that from no later than 1980 or so, the Officials had no effective military capacity. In later years, some former officials were to rise to high levels in the Republic – while a few others, formerly associated with the movement, even went on to act as advisers to David Trimble. However there has been no statement of any sort to the effect of winding up the Official IRA or even the traditional republican order to dump arms. Throughout the 1980s, allegations that the Official IRA remained in existence and was engaged in criminal activity appeared in the Irish press. These eventually proved a considerable political embarassment to the Workers Party, and in 1992 the leadership proposed amendments to the party consititution which would, inter alia, effectively allow it to purge members suspected of involvement in the Official IRA. This proposal failed to obtain the required two-thirds support at the party conference that year, and as a result the leadership, including six of the party's seven members of Dáil Éireann, left to establish a new party, later named Democratic Left.

Persons killed by the Official IRA

According to the Sutton database of deaths at the University of Ulster's CAIN project[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/crosstabs.html], the OIRA was responsible for 52 killings during the Troubles. 23 of its victims were civilians, 17 were members of the British security forces, 11 were republican paramilitaries (including three of its own members) and one was a loyalist paramilitary.

Provisional Irish Republican Army

The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA; more commonly referred to as the IRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the army or the Ra) is an Irish Republican paramilitary organisation. The organisation has been outlawed and classified as a terrorist group in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States and many other countries. Since its emergence in 1969, its stated aim has been the reunification of Ireland which it believed could not be achieved without an armed campaign directed against British rule in Northern Ireland. On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign, stating that it would work to achieve its aims using "purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means" and that "[IRA] Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever". Like all other organisations calling themselves the IRA (see List of IRAs), the Provisionals refer to themselves in public announcements and internal discussions as Óglaigh na hÉireann (literally "Volunteers of Ireland"), the official Irish language title of the Irish Defence Forces (the Irish army). Irish Defence Forces

Origins

The Provisional IRA has its ideological and organisational roots in the pre-1969 anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army. This organisation split into two groups at its Special Army Convention in December 1969, mainly over the issue of abstentionism and over the question on how to respond to the escalating violence in Northern Ireland. The two groups that emerged from the split became known as the Official IRA (which espoused a Marxist analysis of Irish partition) and the Provisional IRA. Although a split in the IRA was inevitable given the irreconcilability of the two factions, a number of ministers of the then Irish Fianna Fáil government attempted to help the fledgling Provisionals by purchasing arms for them. This gave rise to the Arms Crisis scandal of 1970. The main figures in the early Provisional IRA were Seán Mac Stiofáin (who served as the organisation's first chief of staff), Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (the first president of Provisional Sinn Féin), Dáithí Ó Conaill, and Joe Cahill. All served on the first Provisional IRA Army Council. The Provisional appellation deliberately echoed the "Provisional Government" proclaimed during the 1916 Easter Rising. The Provisionals maintained a number of the principles of the pre-1969 IRA. It considered British rule in Northern Ireland and the government of the Republic of Ireland to be illegitimate. Like the pre-1969 IRA, it believed that the IRA Army Council was the legitimate government of the all-island Irish Republic. This belief was based on a complicated series of perceived political inheritances which constructed a legal continuity from the Second Dáil. Most of these abstentionist principles were abandoned in 1986. Initially, both the Official IRA and Provisional IRA espoused military means to pursue their goals. Unlike the Officials, however, the Provisionals called for a more aggressive campaign against the Northern Ireland state. While the Officials were initially the larger organisation and enjoying most support from the republican constituency, the Provisionals came to dominate, especially after the Official IRA declared a ceasefire in 1972. Although the Provisional IRA had a political wing, Provisional Sinn Féin, the early Provisional IRA was extremely suspicious of political activity, arguing rather for the primacy of armed struggle.

Organisation

The IRA is organised hierarchically. It refers to its ordinary members as volunteers (or óglaigh in Irish). Up until the late 1970s, IRA volunteers were organised according to where they lived. Volunteers living in one area formed a company, which in turn was part of a battalion, which likewise made up brigades. In the late 1970s, the geographical organisational principle was abandoned by the IRA in many areas in Northern Ireland owing to its inherent security vulnerability. In its place came smaller, tight-knit cells under the direct control of the IRA leadership. All levels of the IRA are entitled to send delegates to IRA General Army Conventions (GACs). The GAC is the IRA's supreme decision-making authority. Before 1969, GACs met regularly. Since 1970 they have become less frequent, owing to the difficulty in organising such a large gathering of what is an illegal organisation. The GAC in turn elects a 12-member IRA Executive, which in turn selects seven of its members to form the IRA Army Council. The seats vacated on the Executive are immediately refilled. For day-to-day purposes authority is vested in the Provisional Army Council (PAC) which, as well as directing policy and taking major tactical decisions, appoints a chief of staff from one of its number or, less commonly, from outside its ranks. The chief of staff then appoints an adjutant general as well as a General Headquarters (GHQ), which consists of a number of individual departments. These departments are:
- IRA Quartermaster General
- IRA Director of Finance
- IRA Director of Engineering
- IRA Director of Training
- IRA Director of Intelligence
- IRA Director of Publicity
- IRA Director of Operations
- IRA Director of Security At a regional level, the IRA is divided into a Northern Command, which operates in the area of Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic, and a Southern Command, which operates in the rest of Ireland. There are also organisational units in Britain and the United States.

Weaponry and operations

In the early days of the Troubles from around 1969-71, the PIRA was very poorly armed, having available only a handful of old fashioned weapons left over from the IRA's Border campaign of the 1950s. Such weapons included Lee Enfield rifles, Webley revolvers, and Thompson submachine guns. Their explosives were primarily gelignite - a commercial explosive which they either bought or stole from civilian sources. In the first years of the conflict, the Provisionals' main activity was providing firepower to back up nationalist rioters and to defend nationalist areas against attacks from loyalists, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the B-Specials and the British Army. The PIRA gained much of its support from these activities, as they were widely perceived within the nationalist community as being defenders of nationalist and Catholic people against aggression. As the conflict escalated in the early 1970s, the numbers recruited by the PIRA mushroomed, in response to the nationalist community's anger at events such as the introduction of internment without trial and Bloody Sunday (1972) when the British Army shot dead 13 unarmed protesters in Derry. The PIRA leadership took the opportunity to launch an offensive, believing that they could force a British withdrawal from Ireland by inflicting severe casualties, thus undermining public support in Britain for its continued presence. To this end, they secured large amounts of modern weapons from supporters in the USA and Libya - most notably AR-180 rifles. During this period, a typical PIRA operation involved sniping at British patrols, killing local police and soldiers when off-duty, and the bombing of commercial targets such as shops and businesses. The most effective tactic the PIRA developed for its bombing campaign was the car bomb, where large amounts of explosives were packed into a car, which was driven to its target and then exploded. The bloodiest example of the Provisionals' commercial bombing campaign was Bloody Friday in Belfast, where 9 people were killed and many more injured. In rural areas such as South Armagh, the PIRA units most effective weapon was the "culvert-bomb" - where explosives were planted under drains in country roads. This proved so dangerous for British Army patrols that all troops in the area had to be transported by helicopter, a policy which they have continued down to the present day. Another very effective PIRA tactic devised in the 1970s was the use of home-made mortars mounted on the back of trucks that were fired at police and army bases. The early 1970s were the most violent years of the Troubles, with 1972 being the most bloody single year - over 500 people being killed. As well as its campaign against the security forces, the PIRA became involved, in the middle of the decade, in a "tit for tat" cycle of sectarian killings with loyalist paramilitaries. The worst example of this occurred in 1976, when a PIRA unit in Armagh shot dead ten Protestant building workers at Kingsmills, in reprisal for Ulster Volunteer Force killings of local Roman Catholics. As the PIRA campaign continued through the 1970s and '80s, the organisation increasingly targeted off-duty RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment servicemen. Because these men were almost exclusively Protestant and unionist, these killings were also widely percieved as a campaign of sectarian assassination. Towards the end of the troubles, the Provisionals widened their campaign even further, to include the killing of people who worked in a civilian capacity with the RUC and British Army. The bloodiest example of this came in 1992, when a PIRA bomb killed eight building workers who were working on a British Army base at Teebane. Again, since Protestants and unionists were more likely to work for the British Army and police, this was widely seen as part of a campaign against Protestants. For the PIRA, such attacks may have been counter-productive, as incidents such as these facilitated the British government's aims to "criminalise" the PIRA and portray the conflict as one between sectarian gangs, and itself as a neutral arbiter. Another plank of the PIRA strategy developed in the mid-seventies was the bombing of civilian targets in England. On at least two occasions, at Birmingham and Guildford, bombings of pubs (on the basis that they were used by British soldiers) caused large-scale civilian loss of life. In the 1980s, the IRA obtained very large quantities of weapons and explosives from Colonel Gadaffi's Libya. These included Kalashnikov rifles, rocket propelled grenades, heavy Soviet made DShK machine guns and the plastic explosive Semtex. In spite of this, the PIRA was unable to substantially escalate its campaign due to the increased efficiency of the British security forces in infiltrating its structures. The organisation also suffered repeated losses at the hands of British special forces like the Special Air Service, the most spectacular being the ambush and killing of eight armed IRA members at Loughall in 1987 (see shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland). The IRA and its political wing, Sinn Féin also suffered heavily from a campaign of assassination launched against their members by Loyalist paramilitaries. It has been alleged that the loyalists were aided in this campaign by elements of the security forces (see Stevens Report). From 1990 until the ceasefire of 1994, loyalists killed more people every year in Northern Ireland than republicans, largely due to a large shipment of arms they received from the South African apartheid government (see Short Brothers). However, during the same period, the IRA also became very effective at bombing commercial targets in England, particularly London, which caused a huge amount of damage to property. Among their targets were the City of London, Canary Wharf and Manchester city centre. It has been argued that this bombing campaign helped convince the British government (who had hoped to contain the conflict to Northern Ireland with its Ulsterisation policy) to negotiate with Sinn Fein.

Categorisation

Due to its frequent use of bombs; its killing of hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians, predominantly though not exclusively in Northern Ireland; its status as an illegal organization; its role in racketeering, bank robberies, street 'justice' and the fact that the unionist/loyalist majority in Northern Ireland wanted to continue living under British rule, it is internationally considered a terrorist group , although its supporters preferred the labels freedom fighter, guerrilla and volunteer. IRA attacks on the British security forces (i.e. the British Army and the RUC) and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland could be described as guerrilla warfare, so "guerrilla" is a technically accurate term. This definition was criticised by unionists and constitutional republicans as suggesting that the IRA's actions had at least some legitimacy. In addition, aside from exessive collateral damage, PIRA attacks have repeatedly specifically focussed on non-military, non-police targets, which supports the use of the term "terrorist." Membership of the IRA remains illegal in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, but PIRA prisoners convicted of offences committed before 1998 have been granted conditional early release as part of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. In the United Kingdom a person convicted of membership of a "proscribed organisation", such as the PIRA, still nominally faces imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Strength and support

The Provisional IRA has several hundred members, as well as tens of thousands of civilian sympathisers in Ireland, mostly in Ulster. In 2005, Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told the Dáil that the organization had "between 1,000 and 1,500" active members [http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20050623.xml&Node=H10-1#H10-1]. However, the movement's appeal was hurt badly by more notorious bombings widely perceived as atrocities, such as the killing of civilians attending a Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Enniskillen in 1987 (the IRA maintain that their target was a contingent of British soldiers due to pass the cenotaph), and the murder of two children when a bomb went off in Warrington, which led to tens of thousands of people descending on O'Connell Street in Dublin to call for an end to the IRA's campaign. In the 1990s the IRA moved to attacking economic targets, such as the Baltic Exchange and Canary Wharf, the latter of which killed two Pakistanis. More cynical commentators contend that these bombings concentrated minds in the British government far more than the violence in Northern Ireland, which led to the beginning of informal contacts with the IRA soon after. The IRA had an official policy of bombing only targets in England (not the Celtic countries of Scotland and Wales), although they detonated a bomb at an oil terminal in the Shetland Isles in 1981 while Queen Elizabeth II was performing the official opening of the terminal. In recent times the movement's strength has been weakened by members leaving the organisation to join hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. According to McDowell, these organizations have little more than 150 members each [http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20050623.xml&Node=H10-1#H10-1]. The PIRA's associated political party, Sinn Féin, until recently received the support of only a minority of nationalists in Northern Ireland, and very few voters in the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Féin now has 24 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (out of 108), five Westminster MPs (out of 18 from Northern Ireland) and five Republic of Ireland TDs (out of 166). This increase is widely perceived as support for the IRA ceasefire and some commentators maintain this support would decrease if the IRA returned to violence (although this did not happen during the brief resumption that occurred between the 1994 and 1997 ceasefires). In the United States in November 1982, five men were acquitted of smuggling arms to the IRA due to insignificant evidence. The IRA has also, on occasion, received assistance from foreign governments and paramilitary groups, including considerable training and arms from Libya and assistance from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). U.S. support has been weakened by the War against Terrorism, the events of the 11 September 2001 and the trial in Colombia of three men (two known members of the IRA and the Sinn Féin representative in Cuba), for allegedly training Colombian FARC guerrillas . The organisation has also raised funds through smuggling, racketeering and bank robberies. A significant US supporter from 1969 has been Noraid (Irish Northern Aid Committee). In February 2005 the IRA was denounced by relatives of Robert McCartney, who was murdered in public by IRA members. The resulting controversy led Gerry Adams to advise republicans to give evidence against those IRA members who were involved, a first for the republican leader. Three IRA members were expelled from the organisation following the murder and an offer was made by the organisation to shoot those responsible for the killing. The family of Mr. McCartney allege that, notwithstanding public calls for information by Sinn Féin leaders, no one has come forward with information that would allow a prosecution to go further. They also allege that republican intimidation of witnesses has continued and that even the friend of Mr. McCartney who was stabbed with him is too afraid to make a police statement.

Activities

According to the CAIN research project at the University of Ulster, the Provisional IRA was responsible for the deaths of 1,706 people during the Troubles up to 2001. This figure represents 48.4 percent of the total fatalities in the conflict. 497 of these casualties were civilians, 638 of the casualties were from the British Army (183 from the Ulster Defence Regiment and 455 from other regiments). Another 271 of the casualties were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Of its victims, 340 were Northern Irish Catholics, 794 were Northern Irish Protestants and 572 were not from Northern Ireland. The IRA was chiefly active in Northern Ireland, although it took its campaign to the Republic of Ireland, Britain, and also carried out several attacks in the Netherlands and Germany. The IRA lost 276 members during the Troubles. In 132 of these cases, IRA members either caused their own deaths (as a result of hunger strikes, premature bombing accidents etc.), or were murdered on allegations of having worked for the security forces. These executions killed more IRA members than any other organisation did during the course of the Troubles. The Provisional IRA's activities included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, punishment beatings of civilians accused of criminal or "antisocial" behaviour, extortion and robberies (most notably being widely blamed for the £26 million Northern Bank robbery in 2004). Previous targets have included the British military, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and loyalist militants — against all of whom IRA gunmen and bombers fought a guerrilla war. The IRA also targeted certain British government officials, politicians and civilians in both Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Many civilians assisting or perceived to have been assisting the security forces were killed in Northern Ireland, whilst many British civilians were killed during the IRA bombing campaign in England, which was often directed against civilian targets such as pubs and public transport, and targets of an economic significance such as shops and Canary Wharf. One of their most famous victims was the uncle of Prince Philip, Lord Louis Mountbatten, killed along with two children and his cousin on 27 August 1979 in County Sligo, by an IRA bomb placed in his boat. Many Catholic civilians have been killed by the IRA for collaboration with the British security forces (i.e. the British Army or the RUC). The IRA also summarily executed or otherwise punished suspected drug dealers and other suspected criminals in the past, sometimes after kangaroo trials. IRA members suspected of being British or Irish government informers were also executed, often after interrogation and torture and a kangaroo trial. Members of the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland's police force) have also been killed; most notorious was the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who was killed by sustained machine-gun fire while sitting in his car while escorting a post office delivery. IRA bombing campaigns have been conducted against rail and London Underground (subway) stations, pubs and shopping areas on the island of Great Britain, and a British military facility in Germany. In the 1980s, IRA members kidnapped the racehorse Shergar and attempted to ransom it. Activities such as these were linked to the IRA's fundraising. Although the PIRA only formally announced an end to its armed campaign in 2005, it had been on ceasefire since 1997 (although hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA continue their campaigns). It previously observed a cease-fire from 1 September 1994 to February 1996, after the Downing Street Declaration, although this was ended when the British government refused to talk to Sinn Féin.

The Belfast Agreement

The IRA ceasefire in 1997 formed part of a process that led to the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The Agreement has among its aims that all paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland cease their activities and disarm by May 2000. This is one of many Agreement aims that have yet to be realised. Calls from Sinn Féin have led the IRA to commence disarming in a process that has been overviewed by Canadian General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body in October 2001. However, following the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing government in 2002, which was partly triggered by allegations that republican spies were operating within Parliament Buildings and the Civil Service (although no convictions came from the widely-publicised police operation), the IRA temporarily broke contact with General de Chastelain. Increasing numbers of people, from the Democratic Unionist Party under Ian Paisley and the Social Democratic and Labour Party under Mark Durkan to the Irish government under Bertie Ahern and the mainstream Irish media, have begun demanding not merely decommissioning but the wholesale disbandment of the IRA. In December 2004, attempts to persuade the IRA to disarm entirely collapsed when the Democratic Unionist Party, under Ian Paisley, insisted on photographic evidence. The IRA stated that this was an attempt at humiliation. The Irish government (generally in private), and Justice Minister Michael McDowell (in public, and often) also insisted that there would need to be a complete end to IRA activity. This is felt by many to have been a major reason for the collapse of this deal. At the beginning of February 2005, the IRA declared that it was withdrawing from the disarmament process, but in July 2005 it declared that its campaign of violence was over, and that transparent mechanisms would be used, under the de Chastelain process, to satisfy the Northern Ireland communities that it was disarming totally.

End of the armed campaign

On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign. In a statement read by Seanna Walsh, the organization stated that it has instructed its members to dump all weapons and not to engage in "any other activities whatsoever" apart from assisting “the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means". Furthermore, the organization authorised its representatives to engage immediately with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) to verifiably put its arms beyond use "in a way which will further enhance public confidence and to conclude this as quickly as possible". This is not the first time that organisations styling themselves IRA have issued orders to dump arms. After its defeat in the Irish Civil War in 1924 and at the end of its unsuccessful Border Campaign in 1962, the IRA Army Council issued similar orders. However, this is the first time in Irish republicanism that any organisation has voluntarily decided to destroy its arms. On 25 September 2005, international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, a long-sought goal of Northern Ireland's peace process. The office of IICD Chairman John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who oversaw the weapons destruction at secret locations, released details regarding the scrapping of many tons of IRA weaponry at a news conference in Belfast on 26 September. He said the arms had been "put beyond use" and that they were "satisfied that the arms decommissioned represent the totality of the IRA's arsenal." The IRA permitted two independent witnesses, including a Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest close to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, to view the secret disarmament work. However, Ian Paisley, the leader of the DUP, has complained that since the witnesses were appointed by the IRA themselves, rather than being appointed by the British or Irish governments, they therefore cannot be said to be unbiased witnesses to the decommissioning. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4286266.stm]

Notable events

1970s

- 1971: First British soldier on security duties, Gunner Curtis, killed by the IRA in current campaign in North Belfast. Three unarmed British soldiers abducted while off duty in Belfast and subsequently shot. IRA suspected but responsibility never admitted.
- 1971: Mother of ten, Jean McConville, is abducted and killed by the Provisional IRA, allegedly for informing the British Army of IRA activities, although her family contend that she was killed for comforting a wounded British soldier. The IRA would deny any involvement in the killing until the 1990s, when it would acknowledge its action and attempt to locate the body. [Northern Ireland]
- January 1972: Bloody Sunday Unrest in Derry/Londonderry culminates in action by British Paratroopers. The shooting by the soldiers resulted in the deaths of thirteen unarmed protestors. The resulting outrage gains the PIRA support from much more of the nationalist community than it previously enjoyed.
- 21 July 1972: On "Bloody Friday" 22 bombs kill nine and seriously injure 130. 30 years later the IRA would officially apologise for this set of attacks. [Northern Ireland]
- 4 February 1974: A bomb planted on a coach carrying British Army personnel and their wives and families explodes as it is travelling along the M62 motorway at Birkenshaw. Twelve people are killed; nine soldiers and the wife and two young sons of one of them. [England]
- 1974: The Guildford pub bombings kills five and injures 182. The motive for the bombing was that the pub attacked was frequented by off-duty, unarmed soldiers. Four people, dubbed the "Guildford Four", would be convicted for the bombing and imprisoned for life. Fifteen years later Lord Lane of the Court of Appeal would overturn their convictions noting "the investigating officers must have lied". Some had spent the entire fifteen years in prison, years after the IRA men who carried out the attacks admitted them to British police. No police officer was ever charged. [England]
- 1974: In the Birmingham Pub Bombings bombs in two pubs kill 19. The "Birmingham Six" would be tried for this and convicted. Many years later, after new evidence of police fabrication and suppression of evidence, their convictions would be quashed and they would be released. [England]
- 7 November 1974: Two people are killed when a nail bomb containing 6lb of gelignite is thrown through the window of the Kings Head pub in Woolwich
- 1974: In December a bomb explodes on the first floor of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge. Part of the store is gutted but there are no injuries. [England]
- 1975: Off-duty police officer Stephen Tibble is shot dead as he joins in the chase of a suspect on his motorbike in Barons Court, London. The suspect had been spotted by a detective coming out of a house which was later discovered to be an IRA bomb factory.
- 1975: The killing of businessman and TV personality Ross McWhirter, who with his brother Norris McWhirter, had offered reward money to anyone who would inform on the IRA.
- 1975: The Balcombe Street Siege.
- August 1975: Caterham pub bombing.
- 1976: An IRA landmine kills Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the newly appointed British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Republic. The IRA also threatens to kidnap or kill Irish cabinet ministers and the President of Ireland.
- 22 March 1979: Sir Richard Sykes, British Ambassador to The Netherlands is assassinated in front of his house in The Hague.
- 1979: An IRA bomb kills Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the British Queen's first cousin, members of his family and a local child off the Irish coast. On the same day the IRA kill 18 British soldiers at Narrow Water, near Newry, County Down; in an attack described by the British government as "a classic guerrilla attack", they first plant one bomb, which kills six, and then begin firing with sniper rifles at soldiers, driving them to cover at a nearby gate where a second bomb explodes, killing 12 others. During an Irish visit, Pope John Paul II calls for the IRA campaign of violence to come to an end. [Ireland]

1980s

- 1981: IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, imprisoned in connection with his involvement in an attack involving a bomb and subsequent gun battle, is elected Member of Parliament at Westminster for the Northern Ireland constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by-election. The moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party decides not to run a candidate (which would have split the nationalist vote), in protest of the British government's handling of the protest. This left Sands as the main nationalist candidate. Sands had been on a hunger strike for "Prisoner of War" or Special Category Status for 41 days prior to being elected. He died 23 days later. It was estimated that 100,000 people attended his funeral. IRA prisoners were ultimately de facto awarded political status by Margaret Thatcher's government, after nine more deaths by hunger strike. [Northern Ireland]
- 1981: The PIRA kill Ulster Unionist Party Belfast MP Rev Robert Bradford along with the caretaker of a community centre. Irish Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald and former taoiseach and opposition leader Charles Haughey condemn the killings in Dáil Éireann. SDLP party leader John Hume accuses the Provisionals of waging a campaign of "sectarian genocide". [Northern Ireland]
- 10 October 1981: a bomb blast on Ebury Bridge Road in London kills two people and injures 39. [England]
- 26 October 1981: a bomb explodes at a Wimpy Bar in Oxford Street London killing the bomb disposal officer trying to defuse it. [England]
- 20 July 1982: In Hyde Park, a bomb kills two members of the Household Cavalry performing ceremonial duties in the park. Seven of their horses are also killed. The deaths of the horses receive almost as much coverage in the English tabloids as those of the men. On the same day another device kills seven bandsmen the Royal Green Jackets as it explodes underneath the bandstand in Regents Park as they played music to spectators. [England]
- 1983: A Harrods department store bomb planted by the IRA during Christmas shopping season kills six (three police) and wounds 90. [England]
- September 25 1983: 38 IRA prisoners escape from the maximum security Long Kesh prison. One guard dies of a heart attack during the escape.
- 1984: In the Brighton hotel bombing a bomb in the Grand Hotel kills five in a failed attempt to assassinate members of the British cabinet. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher narr

Irish Republican Army

Origins

Political background

Easter Rising

The emergence of the IRA after the Easter Rising

Dáil Éireann

The battle for control of the IRA

The Oath to the Irish Republic

The full scale war

The King's Speech

The Anglo-Irish Treaty

The IRA and the Treaty

Footnotes

Sources

See also

External links

Irish Republican Army (1922-1969)

The IRA split

The Civil War

Ideology of the post-Civil War IRA

The IRA from 1926 to 1936: flirtations with socialism

Legalisation and renewed repression: the 1930s and 1940s

The IRA during World War II

The Border Campaign

The 1960s: Marxist tendency and the 1969 split

Footnotes

Sources

Further reading

Official Irish Republican Army

The split in the Republican movement, 1969 - 1970

Impact of the Split

The Official IRA since 1973

Persons killed by the Official IRA

See also

Provisional Irish Republican Army

Origins

Organisation

Weaponry and operations

Categorisation

Strength and support

Activities

The Belfast Agreement

End of the armed campaign

Notable events

1970s

1980s